Colorado theater shooting victim from N.J. is cremated

FacebookAlex Teves (left) who grew up in New Jersey, was among the victims of the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., early Friday morning, his family said. The 24-year-old spent the first 13 years of his life in Verona, later moving with his family to Arizona. Relatives said he died trying to save his girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren, from the gunman.

A memorial service for Alex Teves, who lived in Verona until the age of 13, will be held in the Garden State, but not for some time, said Barbara Slivinske, an aunt who lives in East Brunswick.

“At this point, it probably won’t be for a few weeks,” she said this afternoon.

The 24-year-old, who in May earned a master’s degree in psychological counseling from the University of Colorado Denver, was among 12 people killed last Friday in a shooting at a movie premiere in the nearby city of Aurora. He died, family said, trying to save his girlfriend’s life — pushing the woman to the ground, then covering her body with his.

Many, including his aunt, labeled him a hero.

Alex’s father, Tom Teves, was returning today from Colorado to his home in Phoenix, where his son graduated from high school and attended college. He had Alex cremated on Tuesday, Slivinske said.

Since the shooting, the father has been among the most prominent of victims’ parents. At a court appearance Monday for the accused shooter, James Holmes, he sat in the front row, glaring at the 24-year-old man.

The father has since said guns are too easily accessible and that a lack of tighter controls is partly to blame for the shooting and its scale. And he attacked the media, saying some coverage has focused too much on Holmes and too little on the victims.

“It’s awful and it’s senseless,” he told Anderson Cooper on CNN. “So someone took a gun and shot a 6-year-old girl — why are we talking about that person?”

In that interview, he was joined by Alex’s girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren, and his best friend, Ryan Cooper. Lindgren, also 24, told the news anchor that she’s convinced Alex saved her life.

“With every ounce of my being, he did,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here without him.”